John 3:1-17
Sunday, May 27, 2018
First Congregational United Church of Christ of Manhattan, KS
Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
Many of you know that I recently returned from a week’s worth of continuing education with the UCC’s Next Generation Leadership Initiative. Our week in San Francisco was full of amazing experiences and insights. We started the week off with a bang as we settled into our airport hotel. You know the scene - windowless conference room, no natural light, stale air. And yet - even in that place, the Holy Spirit was moving and blowing and scheming.
We laughed as we discovered that both of our presenters had somehow chosen the same text for their opening comments. And then we laughed even harder when someone piped up, “Hey, this John passage is the lectionary text for the 27th!” We preachers furiously began scribbling notes, hoping we could use them in an upcoming sermon. We’re a shameless bunch that way.
We gathered around tables to talk about today’s passage from John. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Look, don’t be so surprised that I am telling you you have to be born again from above.”
“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The wind blows where it chooses. Even in a conference room with no windows, the Spirit moves. Now, in this translation the verse begins with “the wind blows…” and ends with “born of the Spirit.” Wind and Spirit. But if you read the Greek, you’ll discover that it’s actually the same word for wind and spirit - pneuma. Wind, spirit, breath. It’s the same as the Hebrew ruach - which is that breath of God that blew over the empty chaos at the beginning of time. In Greek, there’s no difference between the word used for a blowing wind and the very breath that gives us life. Breath-wind, it’s all the same. In fact, when the Gospel writers tell us about Jesus’s death, they say that he “breathed his last” or “gave up the ghost” in the King James. The word there is ekpneo - to exhale, to breath out, to expel life and breath.
Breath-wind-life-spirit….all together as one.
So as we were puzzling together over this text, my colleague Ben shared that during our afternoon break he had gone for a run next to the Bay. After he finished, he sat by the water, cooling down, and watched a person who was kitesurfing - something he doesn’t often seen in Colorado. Ben noticed that the person was harnessing the wind carefully, and that it takes a lot of skill and the right tools to kitesurf. But that, once you get going and know what you’re doing, it looks like an amazing experience. Kitesurfing is a partnership between person, wind, water, knowledge, tools….with a good dash of bravery thrown into the mix. A kitesurfer can’t surf without the wind. But neither can the wind do much without a willing partner.
So it is with humans and the Spirit. We are bound together with the Holy in this complicated dance. God will blow newness into our lives but we also have to pick up the mantle, hone our skills, find the right tools, and get out there into the wind to enjoy the ride.
Maybe this is part of what Jesus was trying to tell Nicodemus? I’m honestly not entirely sure. This is one of those texts where I read something different into this particular verse every time I come back to it. Nicodemus comes to Jesus wanting to talk about Jesus. “Hey, Jesus. I’ve noticed you’re doing some really cool things. You remind me of God.” Jesus immediately takes the conversation in a different direction and focuses on Nicodemus. “You have to be born again,” he says. And, yes, that seems like an awkward, non-sequitur kind of transition in the conversation.
But Nicodemus follows his lead, wondering what he means exactly. Jesus explains, “It’s not enough to be born once in your regular, bodily birth. You also have to be born of the water and the spirit.”
If you’re scratching your head at this, trying to figure out what this means, you’re not alone. Jesus clarifies, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Which is basically clear as mud, right? Perhaps it’s an invitation into a life of uncertainty. A life of kitesurfing - stepping out onto the water and into the wind armed only with ourselves, knowledge, tools, a spirit of adventure, and the deep foundational knowledge that we are not alone. The rootedness in that great truth that God is as close as the wind on our skin and the breath that courses through our bodies.
Jesus’s somewhat-cryptic teaching reminds me of another ambiguous teaching about the wind:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind. [1]
Bob Dylan wrote those words more than 50 years ago and people are still trying to figure out exactly what the answer is that’s in the wind. Some hear those lyrics and think the answers to these timeless questions are as elusive as the wind - that we may never find them. Others hear the same chorus and think that the answers are obvious, blowing right in our faces. Dylan himself said "There ain't much I can say about this song, except the answer is blowin' in the wind. It ain't no book or movie or TV show or discussion group, man. It's in the wind." [2]
The tune that he used for this song was borrowed from a 19th century spiritual, “Many Thousand Gone.” Generation to generation of enslaved people in the United States boldly sand “no more auction block for me” and wept for many thousands who had died under the scourge of slavery.
And here we are, all these generations later, and many people who live in our nation are still groaning under the lash of poverty, systemic racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, violence, lack of health care and clean water and on and on and on. Children are still forcibly separated from their parents and people are still living in slavery in the U.S.
Many thousands more are gone as people with two or three jobs struggle to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. Many thousands more are gone as the planet screams in pain. Many thousands more are gone as politicians attempt to legislate LGBTQ people’s humanity and disenfranchise those who might question their policies. Many thousands more are gone as we continue to put profits over people and as we continue to worship at the altar of Ares, choosing war over peace, bombs over food, guns over children’s lives.
At times, the problems we face seem so immense, it’s enough to make us want to throw up our hands and burrow back into our own private lives and say, “I can’t fix this. I don’t have the answers.”
Sometimes it feels like all we can do is sit quietly and hum together:
(Humming “The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind….”)
And other times it feels like there is more that can be done. We live in the harmony of contemplation and action, praying with our hearts and minds and hands and feet.
All over the nation people are standing together as a part of the Poor People’s Campaign. People from Indiana to California, Texas to Michigan, D.C. to Kansas to Arizona are standing together and saying, “Here I am, send me!”
For six weeks, people are gathering in state capitols and saying, “Enough. Somebody’s been hurting our neighbors and it’s gone on far too long. We won’t be silent anymore.” Those of us who are a part of the Poor People’s Campaign aren’t here to play. We have demands:
We demand an end to poverty. We demand living wage legislation, equal pay for equal work, every child fed and given access to high-quality public education. We demand access to healthcare. We demand an end to corporate welfare and the prioritization of things over humans.
We demand an end to systemic racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. We demand the voting rights for all people. We demand an end to mass incarceration. We demand that Native Americans retain their tribal recognition as nations. We demand an end to white supremacist policies in this nation. We demand free speech and we stand in solidarity with those who peacefully protest in the streets and on sports fields.
We demand an end to ecological devastation. We demand 100% clean, renewable energy. Access to clean water, especially for people of color and poor people who have frequently been denied this basic right. We demand the protection of public lands. We seek to live in harmony with the earth.
We demand an end to the war economy. We demand a federal budget that priorities nurturing life, not the death-dealing ways of aggression. We demand the demilitarization of our police and borderlands. We demand sensible gun legislation. We demand an immigration system that recognizes every person’s humanity. We demand a peaceful world for us and our children and our children’s children.
This is only a partial list. No, really. We are fighting for that radical revolution of values that Martin Luther King spoke about back in 1967. We are seeking to transform that whole Jericho road - to completely reorient who we are as a society. We know that these 40 Days of Action are not the beginning and they won’t be the end. [2]
The Spirit is blowing, my friends. God’s breath is moving in this time and in this place. We are being called to put ourselves out there and move on the wind with the Holy Spirit.
The answer is still blowing in the wind. What we need in this moment is a society and world that is willing and able to be born again. It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with us.
The Spirit is moving. Will we be moved?
[1] Lyrics by Bob Dylan, 1962.
[2] https://www.npr.org/2000/10/21/1112840/blowin-in-the-wind
[3] Read the full text of “Beyond Vietnam” here: http://mlk50.org/writings/the-sermon/a-radical-revolution-of-values/
